tailieunhanh - RAISING STUDENTS' AWARENESS OF CROSS-CULTURAL CONTRASTIVE RHETORIC IN ENGLISH WRITING VIA AN E- LEARNING COURSE

This study investigated the potential impact of e-learning on raising overseas students' cultural awareness and explored the possibility of creating an interactive learning environment for them to improve their English academic writing. The study was based on a comparison of Chinese and English rhetoric in academic writing, including a comparison of Chinese students' writings in Chinese with native English speakers' writings in English and Chinese students' writings in English with the help of an e-course and Chinese students' writings in English without the help of an e-course. Five features of contrastive rhetoric were used as criteria for the comparison. The. | Language Learning Technology http vol12num2 xingetal June 2008 Volume 12 Number 2 pp. 71-93 RAISING STUDENTS AWARENESS OF CROSS-CULTURAL CONTRASTIVE RHETORIC IN ENGLISH WRITING VIA AN E- LEARNING COURSE Minjie Xing University of Manchester Jinghui Wang Harbin Institute of Technology Kenneth Spencer University of Hull This study investigated the potential impact of e-learning on raising overseas students cultural awareness and explored the possibility of creating an interactive learning environment for them to improve their English academic writing. The study was based on a comparison of Chinese and English rhetoric in academic writing including a comparison of Chinese students writings in Chinese with native English speakers writings in English and Chinese students writings in English with the help of an e-course and Chinese students writings in English without the help of an e-course. Five features of contrastive rhetoric were used as criteria for the comparison. The experimental results show that the group using the e-course was successful in learning about defined aspects of English rhetoric in academic writing reaching a level of performance that equalled that of native English speakers. Data analysis also revealed that e-learning resources helped students to compare rhetorical styles across cultures and that the interactive learning environment was effective in improving overseas students English academic writing. INTRODUCTION Academic writing is complex in that it involves more than grammar. It involves familiarity with the writing conventions of university culture and disciplinary subcultures in which the second foreign language learner participates Schneider Fujishima 1995 . Ballard and Clanchy 1984 found that while a student is inducted into a particular discipline through lectures discussions and laboratory work it is through the written assignments that success is most commonly judged. Although foreign language proficiency is at the heart of